Conversational

Max has been becoming more and more conversational over the past weeks and months. A couple weeks ago I had a really funny conversation with him:

Max (looking at my recently-pedicured bare feet): Mama, paint feet!
Me: Yes, do you like it? Doesn't it look pretty?
Max: Good job mama!

Another funny one that sticks with me is:

Max (singing Old MacDonald in the back seat of the car): Moo moo here, moo moo here.
Me: Max, I just love how you are starting to sing all these songs. It is so great!
Max: Tanks mama!

It is so funny to hear things I say to him parroted back in different ways. One of his favorites is "No way!" when he really doesn't like what I want him to do, just like I use it when I really don't want him to do what he is trying to.

Two weekends ago we took Max on his first trip to New York city. He thoroughly enjoyed the amenities (read: cookies) of the Admirals Club at the airport.


One of the many ways I tried to keep him occupied on the plane was with stickers. He would rather put them all over himself than in the sticker book. It is way more fun, of course. He did pretty well on the plane, as well as a 1 1/2 year old can be expected to do. At least there was no screaming or crying. But he was hard to keep contained to his seat. (We were super lucky and there was an empty seat next to mine - key since we had not bought a seat for him.)

Max and his new friend Connor really enjoyed our very cold outing to Central Park.

Max also enjoyed the New York Times. A very cultured boy.

Or something.

We stayed one night at a hotel in Times Square. Every time we left the hotel all weekend Max would point at the tall buildings and yell "New York City!". When we drove through downtown Chicago after getting home that weekend he also yelled "New York City!".

Max and Connor had tons of loud fun once the air mattress was deflated.

And they got some hugs in too. They were too cute together.

But let us compare. Sweet, quiet, calm Connor:

Captain Tornado Max:

It was COLD when we went to Central Park, but the boys didn't care, and didn't want to leave when it was time.

One of Max's recent favorite pastimes is stomping on snow.

We sure had fun!

The Blizzard of 2011

Max experienced his first blizzard over the past 24 hours. Last night the wind was whipping around our house (apparently up to 70 mph gusts - making us glad we took care of our tree issues las summer!). This morning we woke up to this:

They say we only got 11 inches here in Lombard, but the drifts were much higher.

Our neighbors are awesome and most everyone was out, shoveling everyone's sidewalks and driveways together.

There was no one out today, so after the snow plow came we took a walk in the road.

Max had a blast playing in the snow, and stayed out close to 2 1/2 hours, even though it was really cold too.

One of his favorite things was sliding down the snow banks.

It's a good thing daddy was home to shovel us out!

Well into 2011

And I haven't even posted any pictures from the holidays. Unfortunately I didn't take too many... I guess we were too busy running from one place to the next. I did take a few videos, and have just now discovered that no sound recorded. Super disappointing! We have video of Max opening presents and his stocking with no sound... I'll have to have someone more adept with technology figure out what the problem is - I couldn't figure it out.

I did have a helper this year with making treats for friends and family. Max (with daddy's help) crushed up the candy canes for our Peppermint Bark.


Santa brought Max this wonderful train table and train set, which he has been using (and by using I mean destroying the tracks that daddy sets up) a lot!

In the cold Chicago winter we've been spending a lot of time at the DuPage Children's Museum. Max loves the wind area and especially loves playing in the wooden boat.

More boating. Hard at work!

Today Grandma Alyse and I took Max to the Arboretum to play in the snow and see some Huskies. We didn't get too close to the dogs, but it was a great day to be outside - not too cold and lots of good packing snow. Max had fun trying to make snowballs and throwing them on himself and trying to make snow angels (face down in the snow).

We had a lot of laughs.

I need to be better at taking more pictures, like I did the first year of Max's life. I have been kind of thwarted by the poor lighting conditions in a lot of our house and the fact that my flash makes pictures look totally horrible. And I need a better system for dealing with the pictures I do take. I need to sit down and deal with them and file them and everything once a month. It is almost the end of January, so I'll make my goal to take more pictures in February and put on my calendar to deal with the pictures at the end of each month. Maybe I can get into better habits... There just are never enough hours in the day.

HA-PY

I seem to have a lot of pictures of Max eating and making a mess... Here he is with a nice bowl of chili and cornbread. It was ALL over the floor too. What a mess. You'll also notice the little stickers on his face. He loves stickers.


He loved his first taste of oreo cookie (or the Trader Joe's version at least). Yep, we often do lunch in the buff except for a diaper and a bib. Makes the laundry easier.

I also have a lot of pictures of Max "making soup" in his little kitchen. At least it mostly keeps him out of my hair when I am trying to actually make dinner. His favorite soup to make these days is the delicious Block Soup.

He also climbs up on the kitchen and tries to give me a heart attack.

We had a very cold trip to the zoo recently to get our Christmas tree, and Max asked to go back the very next day. Of course we took him. He had fun riding on daddy's shoulders.

We took Max to see Santa again this year. At first this is the closest he would get.

But after we bribed him with a candy cane, which he insisted was a sucker. One of his favorite things. Then he sat on Santa's lap nicely. When we asked him what he wanted Santa to bring him he said "presents". When we asked him what kind he said "orange". He is starting to understand a little bit at least. He also is pointing to the fireplace and saying "down!". Mike was telling him the other night that Santa will come down the chimney, and he seems fascinated by that.

And he checked out the geese with his friends at the window. He hugged and hugged and hugged his girlfriend Maddie - she seemed unimpressed.

Max is learning what we say during the holidays, and when prompted (and sometimes unprompted) he'll say HA-PY for Happy Holidays. So, HA-PY to all of you!

Fall

What a beautiful fall we have had. We took a trip to the Arboretum where mama bought a huge bag of Kettle Corn. Poor Max wanted in... BAD... but didn't get to sample any. (Still a choking hazard, little guy.)

We explored the caboose at the Cosley Zoo in Wheaton.

Spun the ball at the Arboretum.

Grandma and Grandpa Purdy came to visit and we went to a pumpkin patch and had a hayride.

And bought a pumpkin that weighed exactly the same as Max.

Max tried to pick up the huge pumpkins at the zoo.

And danced on daddy's car.

Captain Spatula went trick-or-treating (though he never got the hang of saying "trick or treat" and would just say "CANDY!" when we went to the houses) with his friends donut and owl.

Captain Spatula would not hang onto his special spatula that one of our wonderful neighbors gave him, but didn't let go of that Snickers bar!

And I chopped off all my hair too!

Happy fall!

At Long Last

My apologies go out to those of you who have been checking back on our little blog to find nothing new here. I think my New Year's Resolution of posting once a week was a little overly ambitious, especially given the go-go-go nature of our lives of late. So, here is a little recap of the rest of our summer.

First we spent many, many hours in the car. Max was pretty good considering.

All in the name of a week's vacation on Mackinac Island! We had one luxurious night at The Grand Hotel at the end of our stay.

During the week we sought out all the best playgrounds that Mackinac Island has to offer.

We biked around the island, went hiking, and visited the Butterfly Conservatory.

We played and ran on the lawn of the resort we stayed at the rest of the week. It was a super-relaxing, fabulous family week.

Then, on our 5th anniversary we got to attend a wedding! Bill and Erin got married just a mile or two from where we did. It was a fabulous time.

In September we had some visitors from British Columbia. It was so great to catch up with Hank and Carolyn and meet their incredibly personable daughter Leah. Max chased her around asking for "hug-a"s. He is very affectionate.

While our visitors were here we took Max to his first baseball game at US Cellular Field - the White Sox vs. the Tigers. He was enthralled (at least for the second it took to take this photo).

Max always wants to stir things that are on the stove and generally makes a nuisance of himself while I am trying to make dinner. I suppose that is the prerogative of a 16-month old. So I got him a little kitchen set, which he loves, and does seem to help. I keep sending him off to his kitchen to help me by making some soup or whisking up some eggs. His favorite thing, though, is to pull out the sink and climb right in. For some reason I see this photo and I see Max's Uncle Phil.

We also had a fun visit to the Arboretum recently where Max also decided that this big ball needed a hug-a.

Max is growing like a weed. In the course of 6 weeks this summer he grew 1 1/2 inches! He eats like a horse as a result. The other morning for breakfast he ate two banana muffins, an entire banana and a bowl of cantaloupe and pineapple.

He is so affectionate with us and with all of his Gings (grandmas) and Pas (grandpas). The best part of my day is when I get an out-of-the blue hug and kiss, which is fairly often. His favorite things are pens and garbage, and is constantly disgruntled by the fact that we won't let him handle either one.

He can tell us what he wants (by saying "want" and pointing), he can tell us when he is "hunga" (hungry), or when he konked his head or if he needs help with something. He has so many words already it is amazing and I am constantly amazed by the things he comes up with. He points at fire hydrants and says "water" - turns out Grandma Alyse taught him that.

He loves saying "hi" and waving to everyone - he is hilarious at the grocery store. Hmmm, maybe it is genetic. I seem to remember stories about myself doing things like that when I was a baby. In any case, he is the best baby boy (and if you call him a big boy or a good boy he is sure to correct you by saying "baby") that anyone could ask for.

What a joy, what a joy, what a joy.